Depths of Courage: The Attack on New York Harbor (Volume 10)

"Depths of Courage volume 10" is a solitaire wargame on a proposed Italian mini-sub attack on New York Harbor during the summer of 1943. The active player takes on the role of the commanders of the three, two-man crew S.L.C. (Siluro a Lenta Corsa) Maiale (Pig) class and CA 2 mini-submarines. You must endeavor to overcome the US defenses and night-time visibility to inflict as much damage as possible before being killed, captured or escaping.

An Italian raid with by their frogmen was seriously planned and approved by both the Regia Marina and the Decima Mas. The planned raid was to have taken place in December 1943, but for game purposes I’ve moved it up to the summer of that year, before fascist Italy’s invasion and surrender.

A raid on the US was desirable for a number of reasons by the Italian naval high command. Potential targets in the Mediterranean were, by late 1942, well aware and experienced with the Italian raiders, and Allied defensive measures were increasingly deadly. The early 1942 German Operation Drumbeat U-Boat offensive, dubbed the “Happy Time”, exposed serious weaknesses and deficiencies in the US coastal and harbor defenses. A successful strike at the most prominent harbor in the US would be a tremendous psychological as well as military victory for the Axis cause. However, when it was proposed to their German allies in late 1941, Admiral Doenitz declined to support the operation with any U-Boats, but did approve sending any and all intelligence they came across to support Italian raid.

Unlike the frogmen raids conducted at Gibraltar, Alexandria, Algeciras and elsewhere in the Mediterranean, the raid on New York would also include the newest mini-submarine in the Italian navy’s arsenal, the CA 2. Armed with two torpedoes, these small submarines were so top secret they were never entered into the Regia Marina’s Order of Battle. Similar CA 5 type mini-submarines had raised havoc in the Black Sea and Adriatic, sinking numerous vessels and supporting blockades of enemy held ports. The CA 2 mini-sub and its crew, as well as the frogmen’s Maiale submersibles, would have to be ferried to the target area by a much larger submarine. The only one capable of doing so in the Italian navy was the fleet submarine Leonardo da Vinci. Modifications to its hull to transport the CA 2 were made in German occupied Bordeaux, and training of its crew and the raiders done in ultra-high secrecy in the Bay of Biscay. However, in May the Leonardo da Vinci was surprised and sunk by the British destroyer HMS Active and frigate HMS Ness with all hands. By that time Sicily was invaded and the Mussolini government soon over-thrown. The chaos that Italy descended to, and the new government’s later decision to cast their lot with the Allies, rendered the raid on New York to the dust bin of history.

Could the Italian navy pull off what no other nation had achieved since the War of 1812? I hope all who play Depths of Courage volume 10 learn and enjoy!

—description from the designer